"the American dream as they imagine it"
We did win, Americans! Hope it was worth it!
"US military culture rubs off on Iraqi youth" December 04, 2011|By Bushra Juhi, Associated Press
BAGHDAD - After more than eight years in Iraq, the legacy of the departing American military includes a fledgling democracy, bitter memories of war, and, for the nation’s youth, rap music, tattoos, and slang.
In other words, as the Dec. 31 deadline for completing their withdrawal nears, US troops are leaving behind the good, the bad, and what “Lil Czar’’ Mohammed calls the “punky.’’
Sporting baggy soldier’s camouflage pants, high-top sneakers, and a back-turned “N.Y.’’ baseball cap, the 22-year-old was showing off his break-dancing moves on a sunny afternoon in a Baghdad park. A dollar sign was shaved into his closely cropped hair.
“While others might stop being rappers after the Americans leave, I will go on [rapping] till I reach New York,’’ said Mohammed, who teaches part time at a primary school.
His forearm bore a tattoo of dice above the words “Gang Star.’’ That was the tattooist’s mistake, he said; it was supposed to say “Gangsta.’’
Eight million Iraqis - a quarter of the population - have been born since the US-led invasion of 2003, and nearly half the country is under 19, according to Brett McGurk, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and, until recently, senior adviser to the US Embassy in Baghdad. So after years of watching US soldiers on patrol, it’s inevitable that hip-hop styles, tough-guy mannerisms, and English slang would catch on with young Iraqis.
Calling themselves “punky’’ or “hustlers,’’ many are donning hoodie sweatshirts, listening to 50 Cent or Eminem, and watching “Twilight’’ vampire movies. They eat hamburgers and pizza and do death-defying rollerblade runs through speeding traffic. Teens spike their hair or shave it Marine-style. The “Iraq Rap’’ page on Facebook has 1,480 fans.
To many of their fellow Iraqis, the habits appear weird, if not downright offensive. But to the youths, it is a vital part of their pursuit of the American dream as they imagine it to be.
“Lil Czar’’ Mohammed, a Shi’ite Muslim, says he was introduced to American culture by a Christian friend, Laith, who subsequently fled anti-Christian violence that broke out in Baghdad. ‘
Mohammed said he is trying to record a rap song in Arabic and English. “It is about our situation. About no jobs for us.’’
“I love the American soldiers,’’ said Mohammed Adnan, 15, who pastes imitation tattoos on his arm. He lives in Sadr City, the Baghdad base of followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has threatened violence against US troops if they stay beyond 2011.
But, surprisingly, Adnan says the US gangsta look is accepted in his neighborhood. “All young men in Sadr City wear the same clothes when we hang around,’’ he said. “Nobody minds.’’
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